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Why is it so hard to find a job now? Enter Ghost Jobs

(arxiv.org)
391 points JSeymourATL | 3 comments | 14 Nov 24 14:35 UTC | HN request time: 0.529s | source
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bradley13 ◴[14 Nov 24 15:10 UTC] No.42136901[source]▶
I once applied for a job that precisely matched my qualifications. It was crazy - the job description could have been written by someone looking at my CV.

I didn't even get an interview. Likely no one did.

It wasn't a ghost job, though. It was a position created for a someone they wanted to hire. Being a public institution, they were required to advertise positions. That didn't mean that they actually wanted any of the candidates who applied.

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goochphd ◴[14 Nov 24 15:40 UTC] No.42137277[source]▶
I once applied to a position like this. It was eerily similar to my background, and when I did a little digging I found that the group lead had even directly cited my research papers in his own research work.

I applied on the site, reached out on LinkedIn to the group lead and the recruiter, and even was able to find emails for those two, which I also messaged as well.

They didn't even bother to send me an automated rejection notice. There was nothing at all, no responses to any messages, no email, nothing. I have to assume that position was posted with someone already in mind that they wanted to hire.

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endtime ◴[14 Nov 24 16:27 UTC] No.42137809[source]▶
When I last changed jobs, I started looking at the end of 2021. I was a staff SWE at Google, MS CS from Stanford, etc. - a good resume.

I also found myself applying into a black hole. But when I used second degree connections to get someone at the company to acknowledge I existed, everything started moving, and I ended up with great offers from both the companies I had applied in.

Sometimes there are ghost roles, but sometimes recruiting is inundated or disorganized and you just need an internal champion.

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Muromec ◴[14 Nov 24 18:28 UTC] No.42139431[source]▶
>an internal champion.

It's an interesting way to spell "corruption".

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hn_version_0023 ◴[14 Nov 24 19:25 UTC] No.42140107[source]▶
Knowing someone inside an organization is corruption?

I don’t buy it; please explain how having human connections is corrupt.

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1. esafak ◴[14 Nov 24 19:31 UTC] No.42140178[source]▶
Because he did not get the job for what he knows, but who. Another candidate of equal knowledge, without the privilege of his connections, would not have succeeded.
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2. hn_version_0023 ◴[14 Nov 24 19:53 UTC] No.42140443[source]▶
I’m sorry I do not buy this as a form of “corruption”. Employers aren’t obligated to create perfectly leveled fields for candidates to apply on, especially when candidates are using AI to gin up fake resumes. Perhaps in some fields this is a legal obligation, but I don’t think that is what we’re discussing.

If the world were both good and just then perhaps I could hop on board. But it most certainly isn’t. Frankly, saying so sounds like sour grapes.

3. endtime ◴[15 Nov 24 04:15 UTC] No.42143920[source]▶
That's a very odd take, not what I meant at all. All it got me was an interview, and then I went through the standard process, at two different companies.